Grilled Chicken Sandwiches
Hi again! It’s been awhile! The ‘famine’ on here doesn’t mean we haven’t been eating! It means that the last 2 weeks have been abnormal weeks as far as cooking goes, with company and then being busy with a booth at a Home and Garden show. Not a cooking show booth, by the way. 
We were selling these:
Anybody need a beautiful cedar gazebo in your yard?
I do love those little cooking show booths at shows though, even though the chefs always use the same lines and the same jokes. It just amazes me how they can talk AND cook at the same time! I think I’m a bit too absent-minded for that. And the cookware that cooks stuff without water… Wow! And the food doesn’t burn… Wow! I have a hard enough time WITH water! Tonight while we were making supper, I even burned a piece of toast (not in water though… see, that’s what happens when I cook without water)! Yeah, WE were making supper, not ME… because it involved grilling and that is my husband’s territory.
Here, I’ll show you what we ate tonight:
We’re always trying to think of new things to do with grilled chicken breast besides chicken breast salad, shishkabobs, or just eating it plain w\ bbq sauce. This sandwich is actually along the lines of the Open-faced Pork Chop Sandwich that is a specialty around here.
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Bread
Chicken breast
Provolone cheese (or cheese of choice)
Barbeque sauce OR dijon mustard
Toast the bread. Season and grill the chicken, then chunk it up.
Assemble in this order: Toast, chicken, bbq sauce or dijon mustard, cheese, toast.
OR
Microwave for about 1 minute, 2 min if you’re doing 2 sandwiches.
And… enjoy!
Mmmm, so good and so easy and so quick and not much cleanup!
Wouldn’t you just like to snitch a piece? It’s flavored SO good and is nice and juicy! Not sure what seasonings he used. Edit: He just said he used Cajun Black’n seasoning from the Bayfield Spice Company in Rhinelander, WI.
Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas, only 4 ingredients!
The title actually sorta gives away what most of the ingredients are! Cheese (actually a can of cheese soup), chicken, and if it’s quesadillas it’s gotta have tortillas, and water. I got this recipe off of the soup can. Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup.
It was kind of hard to find… have you ever stared and stared at shelves, just knowing it was there, but you couldn’t lay your eyes on it? I did that with this. I did it in the jello section looking for watermelon gelatin too just lately, but that’s for another time and another post. There is a difference though… with the watermelon gelatin, I was only hoping it was there, with the soup, I knew it was there.
The reason I knew it was there is because my sister-in-law Liz makes these quesadillas and she said Marketplace has the soup, but Walmart doesn’t. After I finally found the soup, I immediately looked on the label to see if the recipe was there and sure enough, it was. Then, I wondered HOW, out of all the soup can labels there, Liz found this soup and tried this recipe. And it was a hit with the family! Wonder how much more I’m missing out on by not trying other soup can label recipes.
There are 4 more recipes on the back (you have to cut the paper off of the can on the specified line and flip the paper over to see them, this is not something you should be doing in the store before purchasing). I think it’s the manufacturer’s trick to getting you to buy more… you can’t see the other recipes till you get home and cut the paper off of the empty can before throwing it away. Then some of the recipes grab you and ”Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup” goes right back on your shopping list. The other recipes are: Nachos Grande, Cheesy Pepper Jack Tacos, Mexican Meatloaf, and Cheesy Southwest Potatoes. I’ll bet some of those would be good too. Especially the nachos, meatloaf, and potatoes. They all have 5-7 ingredients. The reason you don’t need many ingredients is because this soup has got LOTS of flavor and kick.
Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas
1 lb. boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
1 can Campbell’s Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup
1/4 cup water
8 flour tortillas (8″), warmed (I used 9″ tortillas, and only 6 of them)
Preheat oven to 325. Cook chicken in nonstick skillet until done and juices evaporate, stirring often. Add soup and water and heat through. Shannon grilled the chicken on the grill while I mixed and heated the soup and water. When the chicken was done, I chunked it up and mixed it into the soup.
Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture on half of each tortilla to within 1/2″ of the edge. Moisten edge with water.
Fold over and seal. Place on 2 baking sheets (or 1, in this case). Bake 5 min. or until hot. I baked them for 7-8 minutes, until I saw a bit of browning.
Cut into wedges and serve with salsa. And/or sour cream. I ate mine with sour cream. It was spicy enough without the salsa.
Just delicious for something so simple! If you have a full-time job and need to come home and make supper, this would be a good thing for the main dish! It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. For a quick idea of something to serve with it, how about tortilla chips and applesauce. Or peanut butter pie (I’m so hungry for peanut butter pie!). Or ice cream. Or something else cold and creamy to cool the mouth. Tiffany’s take on the quesadillas after a couple bites was, “I don’t wike da spicy.”
Zesty Mozzarella Chicken
This recipe would be worth your time. Not that it takes a bunch of time. I just really REALLY like it. The last time I made it, I was going to feature it, but I burned the chicken.
Hey, here’s a question for you… How often do you make flops? …anything from desserts not setting up right to burning something to cooking veggies too long to forgetting to cut an ingredient amount in half when you’re making half of a recipe. Maybe those don’t all classify as flops, but I mean things like that where maybe only you as the cook know they even happened. For example, if I burn garlic toast under the broiler, if it’s not too bad, I take a knife and scrape off the burnt part. Nobody ever knows the diff. And the ingredient thing, I do that quite a bit because I cook small and am often halving recipes. Anyway, I mess something up at least once a week. What about you? 
This chicken recipe is taken from A Taste of the Country 8th Edition cookbook…
Zesty Mozzarella Chicken
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. milk
1 cup dry bread crumbs (I use Club cracker crumbs)
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. each salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and dried oregano
8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce (instead of the tomato sauce mixed with basil, I just use Ragu pasta sauce)
1 tsp. dried basil
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese (or Italian blend cheese)
In a shallow bowl, combine egg white and milk. In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and seasonings.
Dip each chicken breast in the egg white mixture, then in the crumb mixture. Melt butter in a skillet; brown chicken on both sides until pink and juices run clear.
To tell if the chicken is done, I either cut into a piece to see if it’s not pink anymore or poke a fork thermometer into it.
Meanwhile, heat tomato sauce and basil until warm. When chicken is done, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Remove from the heat and cover for 2-3 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve with tomato-basil sauce.
I don’t think the breading is enough for 8 pieces because I always make 4 pieces and use about 3/4 of the breading for a full recipe! So, if you do make the full 8-piece recipe, make more of the crumb mixture than it calls for. Or maybe I just like more breading than most people.
I usually serve this chicken with noodles, Pillsbury French bread, and salad.
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
I’ve never made bacon-wrapped anything. I’ve had bacon-wrapped crackers and I’ve had bacon-wrapped filet mignon, but didn’t make either of them. So, here it is, the first time I’ve made a bacon-wrapped something…
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Recipe taken from the 2001 Quick Cooking cookbook
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 carton (8 oz) whipped cream cheese with onion and chives
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine, cubed
Salt to taste
6 bacon strips
Flatten the chicken to 1/2″ thickness.
Spread 3 Tbsp cream cheese over each. Dot with the butter and sprinkle with salt. Have you ever tried spreading cream cheese on slippery raw chicken? It’s hard!!!
Roll up. Wrap each with a bacon strip. Place, seam side down, in a greased 9×13 pan.
Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil 6″ from the heat for 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Yield: 6 servings. Look at the difference in the pan of the picture above and the picture below! The bacon sizzled and splattered while baking. We could hear it.
We had creamed peas and Red Lobster biscuits with it.
This bacon-wrapped chicken actually looked REALLY good and sounded like it would be top notch, as in put it on the make-for-company list. The combo of chicken and bacon was really good, but the chicken was a bit dry and it wasn’t really all that extra flavorful.
Next time, I’m going to skip the cream cheese thing and sprinkle other seasonings inside instead. Then, I’ll bake it covered (so the splattering bacon doesn’t total my oven!) and uncover it for the broiling at the end. I think the chicken would stay more moist that way. And then we could eat it with barbeque sauce. Bbq sauce didn’t seem like it would go with that cream cheese mixture.
But it does look kinda neat, doesn’t it? One thing that surprised me was that the bacon stayed on, even when it ended at the top. I didn’t have to tack it down with toothpicks or anything!
One of these weeks, I’ll have to do a week of re-doing recipes that I’ve tried. I say ‘next time’ and then just keep making new recipes and ‘next time’ doesn’t really happen, although I did try something different with those carrot pancakes… I traded the cup of carrots for 1/3 cup of pumpkin and doubled the pecans. I kept everything else the same, but maybe should’ve added nutmeg. It was much better than the original recipe!
Butterball or Jennie-o?
…Which brand are you cooking on Thanksgiving Day?
I was just in line at the grocery store and overheard this conversation:
Cashier, as she was ringing up a Butterball turkey: “Butterball. Good choice.”
Customer, who was a man that looked to be in his late 50s: “It’s the best.”
Lady customer (not me 
), standing in line behind the man: “Butterball is better than Jennie-o?”
I forget from there, but the male customer and the cashier were all but talking over each other, telling the lady customer how much better flavor Butterball is and how dry Jennie-o is compared to Butterball.
I have no clue which is better, but was surprised how strong both of them felt about Butterball. What’s your opinion? Do you feel strong about a certain brand being the best?
About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from central Ohio. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's therapeutic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Christian homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (9) and Tiffany (5), who are young cooks in training. And I should mention Megan (born in June 2010), altho' she's not in training yet. She's more in charge of inside-the-cupboards demolition when she's in the kitchen. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband Shannon comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them! If you want to contact me, my email address is kay@kitchenscrapbook.com